Because corporate pajamas are all the rage

April 12, 2011

Disney Dream Day 2: My Kid Broke The AquaDuck

So Day 2

I did what I always do on vacation – it drives me absolutely batty – wide awake at sunrise. Why oh, why can I not sleep in on vacation!?! In this one case it turned out to be kind of nice: I threw on some shorts and grabbed my camera and headed out of the stateroom to explore the ship solo with almost no one else up yet. It was just me and the Deck Crew watching the sun come up as Nassau was becoming visible on the horizon.

It was really a great time to explore the upper decks. The wind was incredible and on Deck 14 would about blow you over but it was wonderful to walk around and take pictures with no crowds. Lots of great photos, if you want to see more, visit my Flickr Set.

After a bit I noticed that folks had already started showing up and staking out deck chairs for the day and the deck crew had cleared and fired up the Aquaduck so I went down to roust the troops and get them going for the day.

We had already decided that we were not leaving the ship that day. I’ve been to Nassau before and frankly there is nothing there that I need my kids to see. After living in Grenada, straw markets and spice markets have lost their fascination. Atlantis is more expensive as an excursion that if you just flat out went there for a vacation so that was not an option. And they have plenty of drinks on the boat, I have paid my dues to Senior Frog in a previous life.

The big attraction of the day was of course the Aquaduck – Disney’s one of a kind clear waterslide that goes around the entire deck of the ship in a for the most part, clear tube. All I had to do was mention to the kids it had finally been turned on and they were up and ready to go. We ate some breakfast and then grabbed some deck chairs of our own. We were set for the morning.

Puddin headed up first. I had warned her that while she was plenty tall enough to ride alone, she might not weigh enough to be allowed to ride alone. She said she understood but please please could she GO. So I said yes and waved her off. At this point the line only went about half way down the staircase. It wasn’t long until FancyPants decided she was ready to give it a shot and dragged the Dr off in line with her. (She’s tall enough ride but not without an adult).

By the time they got in line maybe 10 minutes later the line had backed up to the measurement sign which is supposed to be the 30 minute mark. I can tell you if you are the person on the deck waiting it takes about 10 minutes from the point they disappear into the funnel. The best pictures are on the return after the go around the back of the ship as they travel slower on that side.

So Puddin made her solo ride ..

And not too much later the two of us watched Dad and FancyPants

It’s all good. Better than good because Disney fired up our all time favorite Peter Pan on deck on the big screen and well I was just in heaven.

After a bit of movie watching I started getting a bit warm and I realized that I had in fact not changed onto a bathing suit at this point and needed to go do so and bring up more sunscreen. The kids were running around, Puddin had gotten back in line almost right away and the Dr and I were discussing what our plan was when I looked up and saw that the Aquaduck had been turned off.

Oh look there is someone stuck and they are bringing the raft back up to the top. Ha Ha that’s funny and this will make good blogging … I’ll grab the camera.

This will be great for the blog …I’ll zoom in a little …

Hey look the stuck kid is on the other side of the raft … umm wait I recognize those feet!

PuddinPop! That’s MY kid! Oh Sister Mercy, Puddin broke the Aquaduck! How in the world did she get stuck the second time when she was perfectly fine going down the first time? She seems fine though….

At this point she started looking out and spotted us watching her on deck. We waved and she waved back and then noticed everyone watching her, and started waving to everyone. The Disney person had removed the tube back up to the top but walked down and had her crab crawl through the loop and back down the first drop to a spot where there is a ladder. To which she immerged and greeted cheers from the crowd with triumphant arms over her head. (I don’t think she ever realized they were just glad the delay was over LOL)

Truth be told, it wasn’t over. It takes a really long time to get it going again. They have to clear the tubes to insure they did not abandon any other riders when they turned the water off. Then when the water is off it takes about 5 minutes of running the water to fill the landing pool at the bottom. So it’s was a good 10-15 minutes more after she was out before riders are going again. Also somewhere out there is another lady who has way better pictures that I do because once I realized it was my kid I kind of stopped taking pictures. But she was closer and more underneath and had great shots of the crawl. She say me talking to Puddin later and came up and told her how brave she thought she was was and I gave her my email and I hope one day she sends them to me!

Come to find out … The Disney girl who went and got her out of the tube had been the girl who had first let her on solo, she had taken air out of her raft the first time to allow the raft to be more flexible. The Disney boy who was running the ride by the second time she was up didn’t know that trick and therefore her second raft had more air and was stiffer and that is why she got stuck. The girl was very nice and told her she could come straight back to the top if she got someone else to ride with her. (I think she announced it to the line as well when they were on those stairs) So you know the Dr. loved that particular trek back up the stairs … LOL. Hey I didn’t have my suit on yet!

After that they gave her a wristband that indicated she could ride but only with another person (didn’t have to be an adult).

We played on deck all morning, when Peter Pan was over Nemo came on! Second favorite Disney movie, yeah! The funniest part was how every parent was walking around muttering the lines with the movie. We all know it by heart. It was perfect.

After some lunch we headed in from the sun for a while and joined the Princess gathering in the atrium. Puddin would have you believe this was a supreme sacrifice she was willing to make for her little sister (and gift shop swag)

But after coming face to face with Arial (the only princess she purports to stomach) I think she drank the Kool-Aid a bit and before you know it she was getting stage direction from Cinderella..

But still… it really was all about this..

Okay, Cinderella after that hug you were forgiven for the snotty breeze-by the night before. We love you best again.

Then we were off to do some detective work with the Midship Detective Agency … more later.

Note: this review is completely my mother-of-two opinion of our 4 day cruise on the new ship the Disney Dream. We paid full price for our fair and were in no way compensated for writing this post.